Fuente Vaqueros has long been a problematic municipality, as one supermarket there well knows; they reported 80 incidents of shop lifting but to no avail.
Fuente Vaqueros has long been a problematic municipality, as one supermarket there well knows; they reported 80 incidents of shoplifting but to no avail.
These 80 incidents, every one of them denounced before the law courts in Sante Fe, range from shoplifting, hold ups and threats from ‘customers.’ And we’re not talking about 80 incidents over a few years but rather, just so far this year.
The owner explained that it works out at three incidents every day. On woman who had a court order out on her forbidding her from approaching within a certain radius simply ignored it and stole items, yet again.
The CEO of a supermarket chain to which this outlet belongs said that during 2022 they registered 400 incidents – that’s more than one a day, and that working on 365 days; i.e., including the days the shop is closed, so the per-day average is actually higher.
The shoplifters simply walk out with items hidden in their clothing or bags without going through the cashout and if an employee says something they received death threats. For obvious reasons, the staff work in an atmosphere of fear because some staff members have actually been cornered outside the shop away from work.
According to one member of the staff (they number five) 60% of the incidents are caused by six or seven members of certain families.
So, what are the Policía Local doing about it? They have simply recommended that the shop hires security guards but the shop can’t afford that extra cost on top of the salaries that they already have to pay.
As for the supermarket-chain, Tu Super, they say that they are going to hang on until the summer before they make a decision, which could include shutting it down. The chain has 24 shops around the provinces of Granada, Málaga and Jaen.
Editorial comment: what possible use are the Policía Local?
(News: Fuente Vaqueros, Vega, Granada, Andalusia – Photo: still from video)